WELCOME TO THE Kiwanis MIRACLE LEAGUE
AT PRINCIPAL PARK
529 SW 5th, downtown Des Moines (just west of Principal Park) Go South on SW 5th Street off Martin Luther King Parkway
2010
Information about games including cancelations (due to weather) will be posted on this site at least two hours before game time. You can also call 515.280.5017 for game updates.
First Fall "Doubleheader"--Tuesday, August 31--as of 4:05 PM we are playing!
6:00 PM Marlins vs. Phillies 7:00 PM Mets vs. Orioles
Our 2010 Spring Season is now history. Fall Season began August 29--the full schedule is posted at "Our 2010 Season". If you played in our Spring Season and want to play in fall league, please contact Joyce Byrne to "re-register". A new player? Click on "player registration" at left to get details and necessary forms.
Thanks for all who participated in our Fall Season final "work day" on August 28. The ball park is ready for our August 29 games.
NEWS NOTES:
August 15: The Iowa Redbirds from the Mid Iowa Baseball League hosted a benefit performance of the Field of Dreams Ghost Players at the Cownie Softball Complex, 2050 SE 22nd, Des Moines, 6-9 PM. Home Run Derby. Games & Prizes. The Ghost Players were pretty clever in a Live Comedy Performance. And the cheers were ample as the Ghostplayers played the Red Birds. Final score? Ghostplayers 7. Redbirds 3. Proceeds benefited Kiwanis Miracle League. A fun time. Click here for benefit flyer: FieldofDreamGhostplayerPoster072410
August 7: Des Moines area Make-a-Wish kids had a great picnic at our Kiwanis Miracle League ball park, then an exciting baseball game (Iowa Cubs won 7-3 against the Raineers) across the street at Principal Park. Many of our players are also aligned with the Make-a-Wish organization and we were delighted to host their annual event.
July 24: KCCI/TV 8 and Advenures in Advertising co-sponsored the Inaugural KCCI/Kiwanis Wiffle Ball Tournament. Twelve teams enjoyed a full day of wiffle ball and fun at Iowa's first Miracle League field, including the Shiffler Wifflers and the Keck Sparklers! The Miracle League Board Has Been's received an unexpected boost from KCCI's Steve Karlin (thank goodness!). Registration materials at www.register-mlw.org. For more information, click on "news" at left.
July 10: Thanks to our Dairy Queen friends for supplying Dilly Bars (Yummy!) for all players and many volunteers throughout the day.
June 18--Des Moines is Named 2010 All America City with help of Kiwanis Miracle League at Principal Park.
Click on "news" (left) for more information.
June 12--We've had some special visitors this year including Iowa's U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (Dem). Tom donned one of our "Angels in the Outfield" T-shirts and was a very good tee manager for the White Sox and Orioles 1 PM game.
June 8--The Iowa Barnstormers (arena football) team were our "Angels in the Outfield". Thanks to Coach Gregory and his team for making a very special evening for four of our teams.
June 20--What a fun time we all had at "KML Day at the Iowa Cubs" along with all the various Little Leagues around town. We celebrated Father's Day, lunched on burgers & dogs on the mezzanine, and enjoyed the Iowa Cubs game--even though we didn't see a win! Thanks also to all who contributed to our Silent Auction, or perhaps placed a bid or two. We raised slightly more than $2,500 for our continued KML operations.
Thanks to Stover Photography for being our official KML photographer.
OPENING DAY 2010
May 15's Opening Day exceeded all of our expectations! We dedicated the new Richard O. Jacobson Pavilion & Surrounding Area (including our Memory Garden & Kiwanis Walk). We were pleased to hear remarks from the Mayor of the City of Des Moines, Frank Cownie, and the Nebraska-Iowa District Governor of Kiwanis, Ron Petsch. DG Ron threw out the first ceremonial pitch prior to the ZaGaZig Shrine Clowns playing the Urbandale Girls Softball team in a special exhibition game! Play started at noon with the Mets vs.the Red Sox. The highlight of the day was totally unanticipated nor planned--little Devin Hunt, 7, on the Mets team sang our National Anthem acapella. There wasn't a dry eye in the place! Thanks to Ronald McDonald House Charities for sponsoring the 5K and 10K Fun Run in the morning and to the Altoona Kiwanis Club for the pancake breakfast.
We now have over 195 kids registered. We have expanded from ten to 14 teams. New team rosters were distributed on May 22. New uniforms were distributed June 5. If you haven't gotten your new uniform, they are still available any time that we have scheduled games. Our new play schedule is posted here on our web site--click on "Our 2010 Season" on the left.
NOTE: As we have expanded to 14 teams, we definitely need MANY assistant coaches. Please click on "volunteers needed now" for further information.
At our February 20th Players Clinic, our players wrote
letters to the Iowa Cubs...asking them to attend
one of our next clinics, or one of our games at
the Kiwanis Miracle League site.
Here's Miranda writing her letter.
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OUR 2009 SEASON
Our Fall Season is over! Over 145 players played. And nearly 400 volunteers made it all happen by serving as buddies, working in the concession stand, participating in "work days" at the site, and serving on committees.What a great time we've all had.
Our end-of-the-season players' party, complete with trophies, was Sunday, October 18, at The Orange Planet. Thanks to one of our great supporters, David Charleston, for allowing us to use TOP facilities. What a beautiful place.
We had nearly 500 players, families, and volunteers! All enjoyed pizza, trophies, and fun! There was even a surprise telephone call from Santa Claus, complete with a special drawing for a motorized scooter. A great time was had by all!
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Our last games of the 2009 Fall Season turned out to be October 4 as Mother Nature decided to bring in questionable weather for games on October 6 and 11. Coaches and players said this was the best season ever, especially getting to "play under the lights" on September 29. Dalton, a member of the Cubs team, had our first out of the park home run. (We had 3 more home runs in the rest of the season.) Delaney (Mets) delighted us all with her singing of Take Me Out to the Ball Game between innings. Evan (Yankees) is still incredulous that all his games ended in a tie! All say they are looking forward to next year at the Kiwanis Miracle League park!
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Check HERE for seasonal updates or call 515.280.5017.
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Our last games of the Spring Season were Saturday, July 11. The weather was wonderful, spectators and buddies plentiful, and all the players on every team enjoyed our last day of Miracle League play in our Spring Season. Special thanks to our friends at Dairy Queen for supplying concession volunteers and Dilly bars for our players.
The Iowa Barnstormers were our "angels in the outfield" on July 6. Hope you caught the great coverage on WHO-TV/Channel 13 news!
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SPRING 2009
Over 100 kids played ball on our Opening Day on May 30--and what a fun event!
Click on the video below and watch how miracles happened...
2008
Nearly 400 joined us for special ceremonies and nearly 60 kids played their first game on our new field. Miracles happened with smiles all around. Several hundred people joined with us in celebrating the building of Iowa's first Miracle League Field in downtown Des Moines. Our goal is to make the game of baseball within reach of EVERY child, regardless of their abilities. Partnering with the Iowa Cubs and the Greater Des Moines Leadership Class of 2007-08, we've created a "field of dreams" across from Principal Park, where the Iowa Cubs play. Thanks to a significant gift of $100,000, kids will be playing on the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines Field. And thanks to a significant gift of $111,000 from the Richard O. Jacobson Foundation, we will be building our "phase 2" covered pavillion, hopefully ready for our 2010 spring season.
Our mission is to offer accessible recreational opportunities for children with special needs so that they can participate in a team sport as a member of an organized baseball league. Not only have we provided an opportunity for kids with special needs to play baseball, but we have also engaged the central Iowa community in our efforts, through financial commitments to the construction of the special facility AND unique volunteer opportunities through our "buddy" system. We cannot change or cure the medical issues life has dealt our children with disabilities. What we can do is provide them with an opportunity to experience the joy and benefits that come from playing our national pastime — baseball! We truly believe that
every child deserves a chance to play baseball!
Last year, we were far enough into our construction that we were able to hold opening ceremonies on September 28 and kids got to play 5 games in our "exhibition season", THANKS to the many volunteers who served as buddies, grilled hot dogs, prepared the site for games, and did general clean-up.
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We will have numerous volunteer opportunities going forward. Please check out the volunteer opportunities on our volunteer page or contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Jan Burch, at MLVolunteers@downtowndesmoineskiwanis.org if you want to be a "buddy" or assistant coach. If you can lend a hand at the site. please email us at miracleleague@downtowndesmoineskiwanis.org. See details at "VOLUNTEERS NEEDED NOW."
We continue to need YOUR support! Please consider making a contribution at whatever level you can. (More information is available on our "donations/contribution" page.)
THANK YOU.
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Here's progress on our site! We look just like the Iowa Cubs across the street! Our late 2009-early 2010 project is to add a picnic pavilion at the site--to be named the Richard O Jacobson pavilion. Here's how far we got before the "snows of 2009-10" kept us from doing anything more. We're also adding a "memory garden" next to the pavillion.
